Friday, February 29, 2008

Friday random thoughts...

• City budgets in crisis: Vallejo might have to declare bankruptcy. Sacramento will lay off 500 employees. Tracy has a rainy-day fund that will save it much grief in the next few years. But if things don't turn around soon enough, could we be next?

• If you need a dose of spring after January's rains, drive down Chrisman Road south of town. The almond blossoms make it look like the trees are covered in snow — they smell like heaven.

This article does a good job of explaining that while the war in Iraq might not be causing the recession, we could sure be using those more than $1 billion dollars a day for a better cause. Like, say, universal health care.

• In this week's edition of "That's a good sign for the economy," countywide sales of homes jumped by about 200 homes from December to January. Of course, most of those are homes that have been in foreclosure.

• In this week's edition of "That's not a good sign for the economy," San Joaquin County's jobless rate climbed up to 10 percent in January.

• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger might be barking up the wrong tree with the peripheral canal, but his call to cut water use in the state by 20 percent and to stockpile emergency levee repair supplies is the sign of a forward-thinking guy.

Calvin and Hobbes quote of the week: "Pretty convenient how every time I build character he saves a couple hundred dollars."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm not a fan of the war in Iraq by any means, but the idea that ending the war will provide dollars for health care or anything else may miss the mark. Since we are financing the war through deficit financing, my guess is that all that will happen once the war in Iraq is concluded (or at least reduced) is that we'll reduce the amount of deficit spending rather than transfer it to a more worthwhile purpose.